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Vegan Broccoli Quinoa Bowl

I’m so thrilled to have Beth from Eat Within Your Means here on the blog today sharing the recipe for this vegan broccoli quinoa bowl. I met Beth when I included her wonderful blog in one of my favourite blog round-up posts. She kindly contacted me to thank me for the inclusion and we went from there!

When I first discovered her blog I was immediately drawn to her honesty, hilarious writing, gorgeous photography and excellent, plant-based recipes. With that introduction, I’ll let Beth take it away!

Vegan Broccoli Quinoa Bowl

There was a period of my life where it seemed the only food blog I followed from was 101 Cookbooks by Heidi Swanson, who also authors two books: Super Natural Cooking and Super Natural Every Day.

I own both and they are both signed copies. This is how much I adore Heidi. There was this one recipe that I kept coming back to again and again: Double Broccoli Quinoa. Heidi’s recipe called for cooking up a bunch of broccoli florets and using some in a pureed sauce, and mixing the rest into quinoa along with the sauce. It was amazing. And it was chock full of dairy. So once we switched to a plant-based diet, I knew I had to “veganize” it. This is my attempt.

First, the broccoli.

I bet if I took a poll, at least half of the people who buy fresh heads of broccoli will admit to discarding the stalks when preparing it for a recipe. This makes me sad. Not just because of the poor stalks who never got to fulfill their culinary destiny, but because of how many times I have fallen into the category of people who throw away broccoli stalks. Let’s all use this opportunity confess our sins against stalks together, and vow never to do it again. Ok? Here’s your penance:

This sauce is made of broccoli stalks! I feel better already.

No wasted broccoli!

This recipe has three heads of broccoli in it. The florets all go into the final dish, and the stalks all go into the sauce. No waste, no regret! You gotta love that.

The stalks and florets are cooked separately, and then the stalks are blended together with:

avocado

lemon

garlic

almonds

salt

nutritional yeast

The result is a lovely sauce that’s creamy, smooth, savory, and completely oil-free.

BULK COOK GRAINS FOR QUICK MEALS

Adding to the simplicity of this dish is pre-cooked quinoa. My tip for easy weeknight meals is this: bulk cook grains ahead of time. It is so convenient to pull out a big bag of pre-cooked quinoa from the freezer and have it at the ready. That said, if you don’t have cooked quinoa for this recipe, use this opportunity to cook a whole bunch to make this and freeze the rest for another time.

PUT IT ALL TOGETHER

So now you have your broccoli, your quinoa, and your sauce. It’s time to put it all together!

toast some almondsslice some avocadoget out some red pepper flakesmix quinoa, broccoli and sauce togethertop with the almonds, avocado and red pepper flakesserve!

Enjoy this broccoli quinoa bowl

If you make this, please tag #eatwithinyourmeans on Instagram so I can oooooh and ahhhh over your beautiful creation. Thanks again to Deryn for letting me take up some space on your fabulous blog! I’m honoured to be here.

Instructions

Place a large pot of water on the stove to boil. While you wait, prep the broccoli by cutting the florets into bite sized pieces, and the stem into 1″ slices. Keep the florets and stems separate.

Once the water comes to boil, add the broccoli stems and garlic cloves. Cook for 5-6 minutes, or until the stems are tender. Remove the stems and garlic cloves from the water with a strainer and place in a blender.

Now, add the broccoli florets to the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Add the precooked quinoa and cook for 1 minute to warm the quinoa through. Drain the florets and quinoa in a fine mesh strainer and return to the pan.

Add the lemon, 1/2 of an avocado, 1 cup of almonds (drain the soaking water), nutritional yeast, salt, and 2 cups of water to the blender. Puree until smooth and creamy, adding water 1/4 cup at a time to thin if necessary. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pour the sauce over the quinoa and broccoli florets, and stir to mix the sauce throughout.

Serve the quinoa topped with toasted almonds, avocado, and crushed red pepper flakes, if you like.

Notes

If you don’t have quinoa pre-cooked, prepare 3 cups dried quinoa according to the package instructions, which will yield about 6 cups total.

Comments

This looks lovely – I have recently bought some quinoa but have yet to try it, this might just be the dish to go with as broccoli is one of my favourite veggie but I don’t like avocado so will have to sub with some other yummy veg. Thank you for the great recipe.

The pictures are beautifully taken!! Using all the edible parts of broccoli is a must! My beautiful family recently had a conversation about our favorite part of broccoli, my youngest dear daughter said “The branches”. Ha! Thanks for sharing this recipe, looks and sounds delicious!

The nutritional yeast gives it a wonderful cheesy, salty flavour. This is different than the yeast you would use to make bread. This yeast isn’t used for baking, just flavour and added nutrition. You can make it without the yeast, but I’d highly recommend using it for the best results! You can find it at any health food store.

This was great! A friend having the meal with us like the half-blended sauce so much he had it chunky. The rest had it creamy as written. We used the whole lemon amount, and even added a bit more to our plates. We like lemon! Had no problems following the directions – broccoli stems and garlic boiled and then put in blender with all of the sauce ingredients. Broccoli florets boiled and put over quinoa with sauce. Yum! Loved that I used literally every bit of the broccoli and stem except for very outside of the thickest part of stem. We all liked the boiled broccoli stem so much that we made extra and didn’t put all in the sauce. Thanks again!

Deryn, you have taught me how to make use of EVERY bit of the broccoli without waste. I used to throw away the stems attached to the florets and only used the longer thicker broccoli stem with the thick outer layer cut away for recipes and salads. All the of the smaller stems of the floret in between the thick stem and the florets was thrown away! I just used that part in a recipe and used your method of cutting them into slices and boiling them. They are so tasty and bring a different texture to any broccoli dish. I am so grateful and can’t thank you enough!

Oh my. I just made this (and ate it) and this is delightful. Mild but flavorful, and the creamy sauce was a pleasant surprise. The added crunch of the almond slivers was perfect. Added to my “tried and approved” on pinterest. I’m definitely making this for a family gathering. Thank you for having Beth share this recipe!